Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid

Facts

A California regulation lets labor organizations "take access" to an agricultural employer's property to meet with workers and ask for their support for unionization. A union may take access for up to four 30-day periods in a calendar year, after filing written notice with the state Board. Organizers may enter for one hour before work, one hour during lunch, and one hour after work. Employers must allow this for up to three hours per day, 120 days per year. Cedar Point Nursery is a strawberry grower with over 400 seasonal workers and around 100 full-time workers, none of whom live on the property. According to the complaint, United Farm Workers members entered its property at five o'clock one morning in October 2015, without notice. They used bullhorns in the trim shed, disturbed operations, and caused some workers to join a protest and others to leave the worksite. Cedar Point filed a charge against the union for taking access without notice, and the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Cedar Point. Fowler Packing Company, a grower and shipper of table grapes and citrus, blocked organizers from its property in July 2015. The union filed a charge against Fowler and later withdrew it. Fearing further entries, the growers sued.

Issues

1. Does a California regulation that lets union organizers enter an agricultural employer's property for up to three hours per day, 120 days per year, effect a per se physical taking under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments?
2. Does it matter to that question that the access is limited in time, intermittent, and open only to union organizers?

Holding

The access regulation appropriates a right to physically invade the growers' property, so it is a per se physical taking. That the access is temporary, intermittent, and limited to union organizers does not turn it into a use restriction. The complaint states a claim.